MarketWatch’s Sital Patel was at the Pierre Hotel live-blogging the event hosted by CNBC and Institutional Investor, with help from William L. Watts on the markets desk in New York. Read their coverage below.

The Delivering Alpha conference gets under way shortly, but some of the big wheels are already rolling in. Jim Chanos, president and founder of Kynikos Associates, tells CNBC he’s still short Hewlett Packard Co. and doesn’t see much hope for the personal-computer business in general. Shares of Hewlett-Packard have risen by around 40% since Chanos made the case for shorting the company at last year’s conference. He tells CNBC that he first got short in the high $20s.

The computer business, in general, is becoming a difficult place to be, he says, because brand names no longer carry much weight. Big companies that use lots of servers, such as Amazon, are building them themselves, he notes. “It seems to me to be a terrible business,” he says. And with the growing shift to mobile computing, it’s very “tough to justify” a premium, he says.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew officially kicks off Delivering Alpha, and uses the opportunity to mount a full-on defense of the Obama administration’s financial reform efforts. Despite critics’ predictions to the contrary, “Dodd-Frank did not stifle economic growth. It did not halt lending activity,” Lew says in prepared remarks. “We are actually seeing just the opposite. Banks have more than doubled their capital on hand, while achieving nine straight quarters of loan growth. And with Dodd-Frank signed into law, forward economic momentum has continued.”

Lew says he’s committed to stepping on the accelerator when it comes to implementing Dodd-Frank and says that by the end of this year, core elements of the law will be “substantially in place.”

Lew likens opponents of Dodd-Frank to former New York Stock Exchange Richard Whitney, who argued in 1934 that the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission would “destroy our security markets.”

Lew also emphasizes that the Volcker rule is “particularly important” and that he will push for swift completion of rules that “keep faith with the intent of the statute and the president’s vision.”

Lew: We need to make sure we don’t end up where Fannie/Freddie fail like what happened after the financial crisis. We have to make sure there is private financing in this country and access to credit for borrowers that are credit worthy.

Up next is the Global Stage panel with Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of JPM Asset Management; David McCormick, Co-President of Bridgewater Associates; Jane Mendillo, President and CEO of Harvard Management Group; and Richard Perry, CEO of Perry Capital.

Perry: You are seeing Europe come back. We hold a lot of positions in Greece, we believe in the new government, Greece has taken a lot of proactive steps and I think the Germans and the rest of the Euro appreciate that.

JPM’s Mary Callaham Erdoes says you can make money in Europe: You can make money on Greek bonds, you can make money in equity, you can make money shorting bonds, as long as you don’t get scared off by the headlines and GDP numbers.

Perry: I think there is a way to do business, believe in the new govt in China. Really think they have progressed that has shown a different way of capitalism. If China continues to do well, it will be an advantage for everyone. It will be meaningful to have relationships in China.

Perry: It’s a country of incredible people, food, art, but they have really messed up their economy for a long time, and as a result of that, the big businesses that have historically dominated in the last few decades are seeing increased competition.

Bharara: It’s not a joking matter, it’s not a laughing matter. You should be serious about what you are managing money. History is that those who come forward and volunteer information end up better off.

Bharara: We are thinking about holding people accountable, not just institutions.

I think people need to understand that there are appropriate situations where institutions are responsible as well, where they looked the other way. All I am saying is that if you are an institution you have committed a crime and had a fine, and another fine, you have to look at that.

There has to be an extraction there, and going forward I think it could be criminal.

Bharara: There is a lot of compliance that is just on paper. In particular circumstances where people are blame worthy where they used code-words to get insider information.It’s not the case that we get everyone, we cannot see every form communication.

There are insitutions that we are looking at that you haven’t heard about and that you don’t know about. There is a lot of power to go after these firms, that we haven’t used much.

PwC Chairman and Senior Partner Robert Moritz makes some comments on how they think about the millienials and corporate responsibility before ‘The Great Rotation’ panel. Specifically financial literacy.

Flemming: If you are a financial advisor you are looking at an increasingly complicated picture. If you are a long-term financial advisor you really need to stick to asset allocation as much as you can.

Leon Cooperman at Omega Advisors gives his take on what is happening in the market: I don’t see any reason then and now to buy an instrument that the govt is buying artificially. I would take my chances on bonds.

The real issue is what happens to Euro. All the bank debt could be sucked down into some massive hole that we don’t know about. Some of the country debt has not be looked at.

Let’s look at France, if they or some other country decides to leave the Euro, it’s not a big probabilty but it’s not zero, which means there will be some excitment there. Low probabilty. Still ways to make money there.

Flemming: Volatitliy will still be higher, what the central bank is trying to do here is historic. We have not done this before where rates are zero for this period of time, which has not been done before, there will be volatility.

Spokes: Opportunities in Europe in the credit space, to replace what healthier banks would have been doing, particularly in areas where European banks are wary for capital. Namely in shipping, Not talking about a garage sale of banks in Europe.

Hintze: Look for dispertation in the market. What really worries me is what we are all doing is what Bernanke is saying and the day we look at the govt for what is happening in the economy/markets is really worrying.

Flemmng: If govt gets out of the way, there is a more than reasonable risk on the postive that the economy in 2014 that we are dealing will be a stronger economy and higher interest rates that will create a lot of volatility.

Kingdon: most importantly the Japanese are talking in free trade talks with the US, would mean the acgriculture markets will be open and that will equate to lower food prices. Part of the TPP negotiations.

They are manufacturing ‘orphan’ drug Juxtapid for treating ultra-high cholesterol. The reimbursement rates is $300k per patient annually. Companies didn’t want to make the drug, not enough patients to justify high cost.

Chanos: Caterpillar has seen margins that are typically in the red are seeing 14% annually. The one aspect of capital that seems to be suspending in this profit cycle is corporate capital reverting to the mean.

Kingdon: HFTs are already topping out, ETFs rewarding stock pickers is not a great place to be, whole situation with bond market with massive positions.

Cooperman: 70% of NYSE trading has nothing to do with fundamental investment, I have been highly critically on SEC, they are highly focused on trading spreads and are driving a lot of people out of the business.

M. Barry Bausano, President of Deutsche Bank Securities and Co-head Markets Prime Finance at the firm, introduces John Paulson: Paulson started a fund many years ago with $2 million and now has a fund of $1 billion with a B.

Are Japanese corporate bonds the new subprime in the wake of Japan’s aggressive monetary and fiscal efforts to reflate its moribund economy? That’s the argument Richard Perry of Perry Capital made earlier at the Delivering Alpha conference. He contends that Japanese investors aren’t doing their homework when it comes to bonds and that he’s happy to short them.

Is Leon Cooperman the Oprah Winfrey of stock pickers? Like Oprah and her book selections, a mention by the Omega Advisers founder seems capable of providing a lift. Here’s a rundown of the 10 stocks Cooperman highlighted in this year’s Best Ideas panel at the Delivering Alpha conference.

Panelists: Walgreen’s has a fairly defensive business right now, to the extent there will be more healthcare, some of the healthcare will have to be done locally and there will be an increase of consumerization.

Safe as houses? Here’s more on hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson’s bullish housing call, which stands in contrast to the bets against subprime during the housing bubble that made him famous–and even more wealthy.

Sacks: Absolutely that structure has helped us exist reduce risk, we have done that over time with commodities markets. We put a fair amount of capital into those markets, structured relationships with managers that where when we saw crystal returns.

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